before "How a Month..."

So the process that my friend, Kelsey, took with the high school kids is what interested me even more than the play. In fact, that was what the point of even writing the play was for Kelsey. Her mom and I were joking about getting Kelsey to write sequels and what not, but it wouldn't matter to Kelsey right now because the process would not be there.

The four lead girls in the play had to follow a lot of rules to survive with limited options in order for their parents to pay for their trip. Kelsey challenged the cast and crew with some of those same rules. Three outfits to wear at school for the entire month. No makeup or shaving. No facebook. The point wasn't to follow every rule, but to consider why we do some of the things we do. Some guys didn't even notice that the girls were not wearing makeup and thought they looked just as beautiful. "You mean we are just putting on makeup for ourselves?" Exactly (maybe not all the time, but you get the idea).

Kelsey also did activities related to community. One particularly interesting activity was dividing up everyone into certain groups, each being a neighborhood of a particular social class. They each had to make their communities work no matter how much money they had. The upper class groups didn't end up helping the lower class groups. Why? Was it in the rules? No. That's just what society tells you as its unwritten rule. Kelsey never made that rule in the activity.

She also challenged their comfort zones. Each person had to meet someone new and find out more about them. In fact, the cast and crew bios were not about themselves, but some of the people they met during the month. They also volunteered at various places. Some worked on a farm, some at a homeless shelter or soup kitchen-type place.

Strangely enough, even more experiences of the cast and crew in real life mirrored the play. One girl broke up with her boyfriend because he didn't like how she had changed. But as humans, we should all strive to get out of our comfort zones and become better. That's why I applaud Kelsey and that's why the process interested me so much.

Also, take a look at the article written by the Grand Rapids Press for this play.

How A Month Changes Everything

So as I said, I saw a play in Grand Rapids last week written and co-directed by my friend, Kelsey. It is about 4 high school girls, Ellie, Stacy, Leah, and Beth, who want to take a trip to another country during their summer after graduation. Of course, being high school students, they can't foot the bill for something like that. They make a deal with their parents that if they follow certain conditions that show they can take care of themselves in a foreign place (i.e. no cell phone, carry everything they will use for the month in a backpack), then their parents will pay for this trip. They soon discover that their last month of high school will change in more dramatic ways than they could possibly imagine.

Carrying everything they will use that month in a bag means 3 outfits for the whole month, just soap to bathe and clean those 3 outfits, and no makeup. Cars are a convenience, too, so they must ride bikes. They can only eat meals at home with their families, so they have to figure out lunch each day, too. Throughout the process, they learn a lot about themselves, community in general, and the people around them whom they would never pay attention to previously.

For example, Leah talks to her Ellie's next-door neighbor. The two girls find out the neighbor is a writer. In exchange for writing journals about their experiences that month, the neighbor will pay for materials to make prom dresses. Would Ellie have ever spoken to her neighbor if she didn't use a bike for that month and came in her front door? The four girls also end up meeting everyday in the park where they meet and befriend a few interesting characters.

The month certainly brings more challenges. They start getting unwanted attention for being different. Usually negative attention. Stacy's boyfriend doesn't want to take part in this new lifestyle and meet the new friends she is making. They find it harder and harder to stick together and complete this month, but eventually end up following through the whole time.

One of the best scenes is towards the end when they juxtapose (not sure if I'm using the right word) the finale dinner with the four girls, their parents, and all the friends they have met to the pre-prom dinner their friends go on. On one side is a beautiful, vibrant, new community of people enjoying themselves. On the other side- a proper, elegant meal but shallow, unexciting conversation.

The end of the play sums up the life lessons what the girls learned during the month, but ends in classic Kelsey fashion. Kind of a "this play could keep going on and on but we'll end it right...here!" I'm very proud of Kelsey. She wrote and co-directed a wonderful play with great words, moments, and character development. It's a play based on many of her life experiences throughout the years. What's more impressive though is the journey leading up to "How a Month..."

long overdue

So I suppose I should try to blog more frequently. I don't know why I haven't been in the mood to blog the past 3 months, but certainly enough things have happened to write about. Each of these things could have their own blog(s) written about them, but in the interest of summing up my life since I last blogged...

September was the month of seeing out of town friends. Kim came into town for a week before heading out to England for grad school. It was cool seeing her after so long. I hung out with her, Lois, Grant, and Joseph twice. First going to burger night with other Cornell friends. Then a few days later, the Art Institute. Here's a picture of Kim and Joseph outside of there. I also took a trip to Iowa for a couple of days to see friends. It had been a lot longer than usual since visiting last April, and was prompted mainly by my friend, Sara, moving to Denver in October. You can see photos from that visit here. A new friend made a visit to Chicago during the weekend of her birthday to see her sister and some college friends. Visit her blog, Life in the Tension (permanent link on the side with my other friends' blogs). Lastly, Kyle, Tiff, and Gabe came to visit for Karin and Wes' wedding. I got to see them a couple of times for meals, a trip to the Botanic Gardens, and an excursion up to Wisconsin to visit a nice, small town called Cedarburg. I didn't get a lot but those pictures are here.

I've been joining a lot of new communities, which anyone who knows me, knows that's what I like to do. The church I work at rents space from an English-speaking church, Meadows Baptist Church. I've gone to their high school group a couple of times. I have tremendous respect for their youth pastor, DB, who's been there for over 10 years. I have also been attending services and hanging out with people at the Spanish-speaking church that also rents space at Meadows. I've volunteered a few times at Nuestro Center, where my good friend, Matt, works. I join in on their after-school program, helping kids with their homework and playing games with them. Finally, I just went to Connect, the young adult group at Harvest Bible Chapel. It's under a new format with Pastor James MacDonald giving the messages and an emphasis on building community. I've only gone once and I'm attending again tomorrow night. It's hard to tell how well this will go at this point, but so far so good.

Work at church has its ups and downs and challenges. More on that later...